What is the most dangerous hitting angle for the screen?

[Juliette]

I was doing a bit of thinking over getting the PRS-600, but the issue of good physical protection for the Reader came up, given my previous misadventure with a broken screen (out of nowhere!) in my PRS-505.

I imagine that a touch screen of is possibly more fragile than the regular one, so: ignoring the dreadful possibility of a faulty screen, where should one better put the padding part of a protection? Is the front-and-back approach the best one? And, for the matter: padded, rigid (like the regular cover for the Cybook Gen3, if you're familiar with the item) or both of them for security?

for your help!

[darkpoet]

Lol. What a question!

I have the BookArmor and am quite happy with it. The front and back covers on the case feel bullet-proof. I mean they're so stiff that the only way to bend them even a bit is to give a dead-center push... ie, getting run over by a car after placing a rock on top. I suspect the flat tire alone would damage the buttons more than the screen (since they poke out a wee bit)...

Since the width isn't much, and the zipper acts like a shield too, a corner impact is no worry at all.

But it would be nice for those who have actually damaged their screens to tell their horror stories how they did it...

[richman]

I'm Armored as well with the bookarmor for my 505, it dropped out on my cargo pants last night as I got out of my car and fell onto concrete street. Opened it up and NO problem at all, if it was not in case and just naked or in sony's regular bookcover it could have broken.

[columbus]

I still think the best solution is the DVD Tin. I have had one for some time now, the 505 sits inside in the original cover with a strip of high density foam around the edges to fill & add extra edge protection.

You can read with it in the case (like an ordinary hardback) or remove & read as normal. No case will give protection if it is open when dropped.

The combination of the supplied cover with the tin case provides is IMHO the best (& cheapest - £0.89 - $1.50) cover / case you can get.

Click to enlarge-

[richman]

Originally Posted by columbus

I still think the best solution is the DVD Tin. I have had one for some time now, the 505 sits inside in the original cover with a strip of high density foam around the edges to fill & add extra edge protection.

You can read with it in the case (like an ordinary hardback) or remove & read as normal. No case will give protection if it is open when dropped.

The combination of the supplied cover with the tin case provides is IMHO the best (& cheapest - £0.89 - $1.50) cover / case you can get.

Click to enlarge-

I was thinking of going the way of the DVD tin case because of it's small form factor. It seems like it could protect the screen and it is much cheaper than the armorcase which costs around 35 dollars. 2 dollar or 35 dollar is big difference in price.
I find the armorcase to offer shock protection too, in addition to protecting the screen, not sure of you dropped the 505 within DVD case it would offer the shock protection.

Also since the 505 is in the armorcase when I'm reading, even if I dropped it , I'm pretty safe since the padding of case should protect it and it has handle in case to hold it as I'm reading, using my index finger in case and thumb to turn pages.
DVD tin case is better than no case and is cheaper and should protect the screen , just not sure about shock protection, same Idea would be to put a small hand mirror in a dvd tin and drop it from 5 feet in air, it could break more easily then if it was placed in hard container with plenty of padding on all sides with material that could absorb the shock. The cloth-like material of the armorcase with the extra stiff inserts offer more protection in my opinion . Each person has to decide for themselves how to handle SAFETY concerns. But first poster sounds like they broke their 505 and were thinking of buying the sony 600 and NOW wants a protected way to carry it. So it's good to get as many suggestions as possible and then pick the best one for you , given money and other options in figuring out the cost/benefit standard for you.

Remember that some people in this forum have reported that they broke their 505 or ereader even though the screen still looked good, so shock protection is important in considering a case for the ereader.

[Juliette]

Hello, and thank you all for the replies

Indeed I once had the screen of my PRS-505 replaced for some damage, and have since then used a homemade protection made of a book/Bible cover, some sheets of plastic foam and hard plastic (result is hard protection + zipped up- alas, 40 euros a bookarmor is a bit too costly, IMHO- shipping this side of the pond is a huge con factor*).

It's quite interesting richman's remark that after all, the screen is just one part that can be broken in some kind of accident. I hadn't considered it... so I guess the best solution would be a replica of the PRS-505 case. I can be wrong, though

Cheers, and thank you again! (and in advance to any poster willing to carry on the thread- there are a lot of solutions!)



* in all, the cover costed me a bit more than 10 euros, and it has survived a handbag not always well-handed in the car AND some pressure in being sandwiched with a netbook into a messenger bag during a train journey *crossfinger*